Must be something in the air. There's a lot of guitar pictures lately. Or at least, I have noticed quite a few. I was invited to a small gathering where two guys had gotten out their guitars. I had my camera with me because I was in an area I didn't know and didn't want to leave it in the car. When they got their guitars out, I got inspired.

Not the best shots, but not too bad for a spur of the moment shoot. I just got lucky with the black futon cover.

#1. I can't find the area that is supposed to be in focus. Not a fan of the composition.

#2. I can see where it's supposed to be in focus, but it's still too soft. I really like the composition here. Although it would not help the tuning of the guitar, It might be neat if the knobs were all oriented the same, though musicians would then know it's bogus, so it's a catch 22.

#3. My favorite of the set. You did a lot right(for me) with this shot. The only negatives being the bright reflection on the knob, and noise.

#4. I don't like where you chose to focus here. The guitar needs a wipe. You nailed the neck angle on #3, this angle doesn't work for me.

What lens are you using for these? If light allows, you might want to stop down even more. The a100 is a little noisy at iso800, might try something lower, or clean it up with software.

I was using my 18-70mm. I tend to do a lot in shallow depth of fields. I had done some at 400iso and got a lot of blur so I stepped up to 800 and was able to freeze the action. Then again, there wasn't much lighting available. I have CS2 but haven't used it much due to the fact my laptop is too slow for it. I have crappy eyesight. Although at my last two check ups, the prescriptions were updated, I still get pictures where what I want in focus and what I actually have in focus are not the same although I thought they were. I don't like the autofocus at times.

My biggest hurdle right now is shooting with smaller apertatures so that more would be in focus. (or is it larger? I always get them backwards) I tend to shoot at 3.5-5.6 f/stops a lot.

Well you're sure getting great dof with that lens. I was sure you were using a 50mm f/1.8ish until I saw the exif. I figured you were using a higher iso because you had to, but was curious. Noise ninja would clean #3 right up, and wont bog down your computer. Mine is a little slow for Photoshop as well, but I just don't have a choice sometimes so I struggle through it too.

I think you said it right, smaller aperture would bring more in focus. Not to be confused with the numbered setting, as that would be a larger number. I tend to shoot wide open too much as well. I usually shoot aperture priority, so when it's sunny out, I try to force myself to leave it at f/8 until I want a shallow dof.

Anyway, you have a creative eye. Any of these shots would have worked well with better dof of field control. Except #3, which is well done.